When he showed up for a Veterans Affairs appointment in Milwaukee, Dean D. Young came in a wheelchair and told officials he could only walk a few steps due to severe back pain.

But as he left, according to federal prosecutors, Young walked across the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center parking lot with a normal gait, without using a cane or the chair, which he folded up and put in his van.

Suspicious, investigators later put Young's home under pole camera surveillance and noticed that over several months in 2014, the only time he used a cane was the day a contractor visited to see about $67,000 in VA-funded remodeling. Those improvements, which would include a new kitchen and a first-floor bathroom, were later denied.

Young, 60, was later indicted and convicted of wire fraud, and sentenced recently to 21 months in federal prison, six months longer than prosecutors recommended.

Chief U.S. District Judge William Griesbach called Young's crime a years-long "massive and blatant fraud," that diverted public money from more deserving veterans.

Griesbach also imposed three years of supervised release after Young leaves prison, and ordered him to pay $201,521.41, the benefit paid beyond what he was fairly due, based on his lies to the VA.

Young, formerly of Green Bay and now living in Milwaukee, was sentenced in Green Bay federal court last week.

According to court records, while on active duty with the U.S. Army in 1978, Young was injured when he drove a Jeep into an unmarked "tank trap" ditch at Fort Bragg, N.C. Starting in 1990, he applied for VA compensation for a resulting back injury. Over the years, he complained of worsening pain and increasing immobility and his disability payments rose. By 2002, it was $917 a month.

In 2004, he applied for the $67,000 grant to adapt his house. He was denied but appealed. By 2006, his benefits were $2,669 a month.

In 2013, Young claimed he had become 100% disabled, and his wife had to help him use the toilet and get in and out of bed. But during an examination that summer, the VA doctor in Milwaukee saw Young walk normally. By then, Young was getting $2,973 a month from the VA, including payments for a separate disability based on post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed in 2003.

Prosecutors believe Young lied about the PTSD, too, by saying he had witnessed a machine gun accident and a fatal parachute failure while at Fort Bragg, and had fraudulently obtained another $215,000 or so over the years for that.

But Young's attorney argued he had a strong case on the PTSD and as part of Young's agreement to plead guilty to single fraud count regarding his back claims, the government dropped the PTSD counts.

As a result of the investigation, Young's benefits were cut in February 2016 and he was indicted in October 2016 on five counts. He pleaded guilty in September to one count of carrying out a scheme to defraud the VA from 2002 to 2015. He is still entitled to some VA payments for his legitimate 20% disability from the back injury and gets alcohol and mental health treatment through the VA.